


Complicit

by FlowerButton



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Hopeful Ending, Reconciliation, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 21:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9290330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlowerButton/pseuds/FlowerButton
Summary: She goes to her after the battle.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Please note: I wrote this at around 10pm last night so if it's muddled, I'm sorry. I don't believe this is completely in-voice for Narcissa but eh, I'm kind of proud of this?
> 
> I don't own Harry Potter, and this content is for entertainment purposes only.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! If you really enjoy it, I take requests too (can you direct message on this site?) so if you want something written, just send a message my way!

She went to her after the battle had ended.

Draco wouldn’t leave his room, refused to see anyone. Her husband - well, it was only a matter of days before the MInistry came for him, and she was sure she had someone to thank for the fact that he’d been allowed to put his affairs in order. As for Narcissa herself, she was...numb.

Anyone from Before, as she’d been calling it in her head, had either been arrested or were still in hiding. As for the people from During, it was rather self-explanatory - dead, or worse, Azkaban. And Narcissa couldn’t find any sympathy for them. She couldn’t find any sympathy for her husband, whose name she found it difficult to even think. She couldn’t find sympathy herself.

Complicit. That was what the papers had called her. And she was, complicit in deaths and deaths and tortures and deaths. She had tried to make sure she was never present, always off running the Manor, but sometimes the Dark Lord - Tom, she was teaching herself, Tom Riddle - called for both her and her husband and she couldn’t avoid it then, watching the blood drain from people’s faces. People she knew, people she’d had coffee with, some she’d even considered friends. People she had grown up with, distant family members, the elderly Muggle man from down the road who stroked her hair after her mother died, the lonely Muggle woman who cut hair and talked about her sisters, the people from the the funfair that came around every year, even more, even more, even more. And her sister.

Narcissa hadn’t thought about Bellatrix. She knew her sister wasn’t... healthy. Everyone knew that. And she’d watched as Bellatrix had grown more unstable, more...unkind. Unnatural, perhaps.

Complicit, Narcissa called herself; she hadn’t stopped any of it. Could she have stopped the Dark Lord? No, but she could have done something smaller, couldn’t she? Maybe she could have told him - Tom - that the Muggles were harmless, or knew something. Maybe she could have snuck them out - but then what? They’d have been found, the war would be lost, he - Tom - would still be alive and they wouldn’t be.

She couldn’t sleep, and she doubted Draco could either, if his screams during the night were anything to go by. She never went to him - should she? What do mothers do when their sons have nightmares their fathers and cousins caused? - but she always listened, forced herself to repeat that word.

Complicit.

Would they trial her? Unlikely. Potter - Harry, she reminded herself, Harry James Potter who saved the world - would argue it. He was hiding too, but Narcissa knew he’d come back at some point. It’s what he did and she was grateful for it.

It took four days before she slept more than four hours, and that was with a Sleeping Potion. It took a week before she left her seat to hand the house elves clothes. It took ten days before she finally left her house.

She dressed in black as she made her way down dark Muggle alleys. She knew the way, made sure she remembered the place in case it came up During. A man passed her and smiled, but she didn’t respond. She couldn’t respond.

 _He could have killed you_ , she thought as the man walked away. _I would have let him._

Complicit.

She dodged a small cat, half-terrified it was Minerva McGonagall, before stumbling towards a small house in the corner of the street. It was tall, with a dying front garden and three broken flowerpots on the front step. A porcelain gnome sat there, its hat cracked off, and a wind chime sang from a nearby tree. Narcissa almost turned back but forced herself forward, down the front path and up to the wooden door.

She knocked.

Moments went by before a baby started crying, a strangled scream that caused Narcissa’s heart to stop. Had she… Nymphadora had to be older than a child now, older than that certainly. Narcissa had met her as a child, in a coffee shop in Muggle London on a day trip with baby Draco. She’d smiled toothily and waved, her face her father’s but her eyes - her eyes were her mother’s.

“Harry, come in!” Andromeda’s voice called distantly, and Narcissa caught her breath. She unlocked the door with a flick of her wand and pushed it open, watching as it gently swayed before stopping. Her feet moved on their own, stepping into the house and nudging the door closed behind her. The baby was still sobbing, so Narcissa followed the noise to a room at the far end of the house, climbing the stairs slowly. Three radios lined the way up the steps, each tuned to the same channel but all off. Books of spells and wards scattered the hallway and Narcissa forced the feeling of sick down into her stomach; she knew why they were there.

She edged into the room and watched as Andromeda lifted a small baby into her arms and jogged them slightly, cooing softly.

“Teddy, Teddy,” she whispered softly, and the baby’s hands clutched tightly at her cardigan, soothed. “Teddy bear,” she said, her voice cracking, and it all came back to Narcissa.

The names of the deceased in the paper. She’s noticed the Lupin name because he’d been Draco’s teacher but she hadn’t paid attention to anyone with him. And Ted was a Muggle-born. He was... Oh.

“That’s a nice name,” Narcissa said, breaking the silence. Andromeda span and shot a curse through the wall beside Narcissa’s ear. She didn’t flinch, but raised her gaze to her sister’s eyes.

 _She aged well,_ Narcissa thought. Dark hair like their father and sister, except with greys filling any spaces; eyes as blue as the day she had left, now surrounded in redness and raw skin; her posture fuelled with anger and grief and sorrow. Narcissa remembered her sobbing as she left - _“Come with me, Cissa, come on!”_ \- and she remembered her laughter that time in the coffee shop - _“Narcissa! This is Nymphadora - okay, Tonks, but this is the last time darling!”_ \- and she remembered the way they used to whisper secrets to one another while Bellatrix slept. She almost broke.

“Cissa,” Andromeda said. “Cissa, you’re - Merlin, Cissa, do you know -?” She paused, hands now clutching at the baby - Teddy - in her arms. The hushed boy groaned and settled into a soft snore, and Andromeda placed the child back in his cot, handing him a soft wolf toy as a substitute for her cardigan.

Then she was stepping towards Narcissa, grasping tightly at Narcissa’s dress, and pulling her into a tight hug.

“Oh Cissa,” she murmured, and Narcissa’s shoulder grew wetter. “Cissa, Cissa, oh Merlin, Cissa.”

“Andy,” she replied, hands settling on her sister’s back. And she broke, head dropping to her sister’s neck as she sobbed. “Andy, Andy, Andy, Andy, Andy - I couldn’t - Andy, I just - I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.”

She wailed into the fabric of her sister’s shoulder, fingers digging into her back, voice hoarse from not using it in days. Andromeda sat beside her as they sank to the floor, both of them gripping tightly to the other, as if scared the other would disappear if they let go.

“She’s gone, Cissa,” Andromeda said as Narcissa calmed. “They’re all gone and I’ve got her son and I can’t do this, Cissa, I can’t raise the boy alone.” Her voice broke and she began sobbing. “I can’t do this, Cissa.”

“I’m here,” Narcissa replied, unsure her voice was even working. “I’m here, I’m here, I’ll help. I’m here, Andy, and I won’t ever leave. Ever.”

Andromeda’s sobs lessened gradually and their grips loosened until they were sat staring across from one another, tears streaking their faces. It was blonde hair against brown, blue eyes against brown, and sister by sister once again.

Teddy cried and Andromeda went to stand but Narcissa rose faster. She drew her sister over to the cot and dropped her hand in order to pick up the baby, who was staring absurdly at her. Narcissa’s heart clenched.

“Hello Teddy,” she whispered as Andromeda choked against a sob. “I’m your grandma’s sister, I’m your auntie. Narcissa. You’ve got me, yes? Me and your grandma are here,” she said, balancing the child in one arm and grabbing her sister’s free hand with hers, raising their joint hands to the baby’s face. “We will never let you go through this, I swear it. I promise you.” He tugged at her hair, and Andromeda drew a finger round his head gently. He gurgled and grabbed at it, laughing when he grasped it.

“Gah.”

“Gah,” Narcissa replied weakly, a small smile glazing her face. “Gah.”

She would not be complicit any longer.

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [tumblr](https://the-grape-bowl.tumblr.com) so come say hi!


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